Towards the end of this period I was struck by the truism that I have only a finite time in which to listen to earthly music. This obvious fact became of immense significance to me, given the vast amount of music which I love to hear. You may recall that I carry around with me at all times 32 hours of my favourite music, but listening to that takes up only a tiny amount of my listening time. I listen to music at every available opportunity.

Anyway, it occurred to me that 40 minutes or so was far too long a time to devote to just one artist; there was just too much music to go at. Moreover, I found I liked the variety of compilations. This was a sort of throwback to the cassette days, where I would find myself really looking forward to the “filler” at the end of each side.

The most dramatic effect of the events of 2004 was that, almost overnight, we stopped listening to cassettes. This was a dreadful realisation, as the house was still full of thousands of lovingly recorded tapes. The awful truth was that we had no realistic option other than to throw them all away.

Having a car with a CD player in 2001 was a mixed blessing. For rather less than a year, we got used to playing CDs (almost always single albums), but not being able to play any cassettes. So, 80 minutes or less now instead of 90 minutes on aotoreverse; and less variety. Then the CD player was stolen, so we replaced it with a cassette player. But that too was stolen, so we replaced it with a cheap and nasty cassette player, but even that was stolen; must be something about the car. By this time it was 2004, since when there has been a gaping hole where the stereo used to be, and we still have that car.

Meanwhile, personal CD players had become common, and I had started to use these as well as portable cassette players, but still favouring the cassettes. These now included a number of home compilations.

By about 1990 I acquired the first of many personal stereo cassette players, so tape production went into overdrive, seeking to get as many of my 600 or so LPs onto cassette, almost always with that little treat at the end of each side. With the advent of CDs, which I was able to amass at a much faster rate, they too had to go on tape, with the result that by the start of the new century I had some 2,500 home recorded tapes all over the house, as well as piling up in the car.

In effect I spent all my disposable income on records for about 15 years, but during that peiod I could only listen to them on a record player. Things started changing dramatically round about 1984 when we got a car with a radio/cassette player, and I introduced a tape deck into the hi-fi. My life’s work became to put the vinyl onto tape for the car.

LPs were typically 20 minutes a side, and the tape of choice was a C90. This meant I could ger an LP plus another track or two onto each side, e.g. Led Zeppelin II followed by Sweet Dream by Jethro Tull. The car started to fill with cassette tapes.

I got my first record player in January 1970, at which time I had 4 seven inch singles. It took a long time for me to save up for an LP (costing just under £2 in English money in those days), but by the end of 1970 I had about 10 “proper” LPs, including Liege and Lief by Fairport Convention, Alchemy by the Third Ear Band, and U by the Incredible String Band. It was a truly magical experience to put one of these lovely black discs onto the machine, and hear about 20 minutes of wonderful music before having to stop and turn it over.

A few years ago, not long after iPods had started to become popular, I remember reading a newspaper article by a guy who had just got one. He was waxing lyrical about how it had remembered his 30 most played tracks, which he could now listen to in a random selection.

As I mentioned in my last post, I carry around with me 32 hours of my favourite music, for use in emergencies, (and in fact for regular brief weekend use).

When I first started collecting records in 1969, obviously I didn’t have many for the first year or so, with the result that I listened to them all many times.

Now I have about 4000 CDs, about 600 vinyl LPs, about 100 vinyl 7 inch singles, and about 400 “legit bootleg” shows. Some of this I have yet to listen to, and much of it I shall not hear again before I die.

Somewhere between these two times there must have been a crossover point…

Anyway, one of the good things about compressed music, particularly using atrac-3 discs, is that you can get to hear an awful lot of stuff, if, like me, you listen to music at every availabe opportunity.